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Ataraxian Confederation
Turquoise White Yellow | Color = 40E0D0 | Political position = Syncretic | Seats1 Title = Parliament | Seats1 = | Seats2 Title = Cabinet | Seats2 = | Seats3 Title = Provinces | Seats3 = | Website = Party overview | politics = Politics of Hutori | political parties = Political parties in Hutori | elections = Elections in Hutori | }} The''' Ataraxian Confederation''' (Ataraxians) is a syncretic transhumanist political party in Hutori and a confederation of autonomous underground communes in Adelia. The party was founded in January 4290 by then 50-year-old doctor, Vinal Parish. The party supports using science and technology to improve the human condition, democracy in the workplace through the use of workers' councils and autonomous self-sustainable underground communes. In addition to promoting the tenets of transhumanism, council communism and eco-communalism, Ataraxians also support deep ecology, self-determination, euthanasia, population control, celibacy, gender equality and teetotalism. The ultimate mission of the party is to build and maintain planned communities throughout the region. The party's ideology is called "Ataraxianism", which claims peace, science and self-determination as its motto. Etymology "Ataraxian" is derived from the KalopianGreek term "ataraxia", which means "untroubled". History The Ataraxian Confederation is the successor to the Hutorian Proletarian Party, which ended in January 4290 under the leadership of Vinal Parish. The confederation originated from the creation of the 64 Proletarian "workers' communes" in Adelia for the price of $3.2 billion in September 4160. While the communes gained official autonomy in January 4246 under the Workers' Communal Autonomy Act of October 4243, the confederation gained legal recognition in March 4298 under the Project Ataraxia/Communal Tax Bill. In both cases, the communes were legally recognized as enclaves within the Kingdom of Adelia (now the Province of Adelia under the Kingdom of Hutori). Unlike the Hutorian Proletarian Party, the Ataraxian Confederation is entirely controlled and managed by the communes themselves. This was considered ideal to avoiding unnecessary bureaucracy and to continue the tradition of "leading by example". The confederation is therefore acting as a physical representation of their mission, with the ultimate goal of reforming Hutori into a confederation that respects local autonomy, not just for the Ataraxians, but for all Hutorian communities. In further contrast to the Hutorian Proletarian Party, the party is a strong supporter of genetically modified food and hydroponics, which the Proletarians rejected on the principle of agrarianism. Project Ataraxia Project Ataraxia is the plan to develop and construct the Commune of Ataraxia, which will serve as the Ataraxian hub for research and development, and a model for present and future communes. The project is planned to include a 1 km (in diameter) particle accelerator, a small launch pad (for space exploration) and other research facilities. Unlike older communes, the Commune of Ataraxia will utilize hydroponics to grow genetically modified food, will seek to develop synthetic meat and will house up to 1,000 residents rather than 800. So far $15.3 billion, plus a donation of $50 million from the Hutorian Royal Family has been invested into the project. The project began construction in June 4316 and is expected to be completed in 4328 (12 years). Notable members * Lyn Kopp (female, 70): Current Hutorian chancellor since May 4317, and 2nd Ambassador of the Ataraxian Confederation since May 4303. Kopp was involved in the engineering of the Commune of Ataraxia and was instrumental in designing the residential section. She is currently working as a structural engineer in the Commune of Seira. Other titles include: Organizer of the Structural Engineering Team of the Commune of Seira, Councillor of the Resource Cooperative of the Commune of Seira, and Conciliator of the Commune of Seira. * Vinal Parish (male, 89): Former Hutorian president (December 4286 - December 4290), founder, and 1st Ambassador of the Ataraxian Confederation from January 4290 - May 4303. Parish saw the creation of Project Ataraxia, a planned hub for research and development in the confederation. He is currently working as a general physician in the Commune of Lotus. Other titles include: Organizer of the Preventive Medicine Team of the Commune Lotus, Councillor of the Health Cooperative of the Commune of Lotus, Conciliator of the Commune of Lotus, and party candidate for Health and Social Services. * Line Flemming (female, 55): Current Conciliator of the Commune of Evimeria since January 4311. Flemming designed the Ataraxian calendar in April 4317, which was approved for official use in the Ataraxian Confederation in June 4320 and has received widespread acceptance among the communes. She is currently working as an accountant in the Commune of Evimeria. Other titles include: Organizer of the Accounting Team of the Commune of Evimeria, Councillor of the Resource Cooperative of the Commune of Evimeria, and party candidate for Finance. * Marvyn Warrick (male, 41): Current Conciliator of the Commune of Ataraxia since November 4328. Marvyn was involved in the construction of the Commune of Ataraxia, where he helped conduct and coordinate digging operations. He is currently working as a geological engineer in the Commune of Ataraxia. Other titles include: Organizer of the Geological Engineering Team of the Commune of Ataraxia, and Councillor of the Resource Cooperative of the Commune of Ataraxia. Politics The Ataraxian Confederation is composed of highly autonomous underground communes, which remain united voluntarily under the ideology of Ataraxianism. While communes control their own finances and domestic affairs, they decide on matters relating to national representation, the funding of new communes, cooperative research projects, professional standards, and mutual self-defence collectively via the Council of the Ataraxian Confederation (Ataraxian Council). In order to remain a member of the confederation, all communes must comply by the Ataraxian Constitution, which provides the legal framework for each commune to follow and make their own amendments to. Structure A commune is composed of workers' cooperatives, which are responsible for a category of duties, such as health care. Each cooperative is composed of teams, which are responsible for a more narrow range of duties, such as providing preventive medicine or nursing patients. In a team, the workers appoint an organizer, team organizers appoint a councillor for their cooperative, who in turn appoint a commune's conciliator. Each commune's conciliator comes together in the Ataraxian Council to appoint an ambassador to represent the whole confederation. While residents may contribute to multiple teams and cooperatives, they may only lead one team and one cooperative at a time for accountability and practical reasons. Decision-making A key component to Ataraxian governance is consensus decision-making, where unanimity is required for changes to the status-quo. When a consensus cannot be reached, the status-quo is favoured. For this reason, in addition to constitutional restrictions, any change in policy usually happens very slowly in Ataraxian society. This method of unanimous consensus is present and required across all Ataraxian organizations, including the military. In order for an Ataraxian to participate in an organization's decision-making, they must be contributing to it through labour, thus the system is effectively governed by workers' councils. When selecting leaders, it is expected that anyone who disagrees with a current candidate also run as a candidate, putting the candidates themselves ultimately in charge of who is to lead. For example: Bob, Scott and Sarah are in a team. Bob wants to be the organizer, but Sarah doubts his ability to lead. In order for Sarah to prevent Bob from becoming organizer, she too must volunteer to be the leader and thus convince Bob to retract his proposal. Ideally, both Sarah and Bob should determine who is to lead based on their merits and abilities. If Bob and Sarah fail to come to an agreement, nobody becomes the organizer. The above example is only relevant in cases of position vacancy, if the position is already taken, the present status-quo leader must agree to step down in order for a new leader to be appointed. It should be noted that the power of leaders is very limited, most decisions are still made by the group itself. Leaders are merely responsible for group coordination and are not "elected dictators". Term intervals and limits do not exist in Ataraxian society, any representative can be challenged and changed at any group meeting. Foreign relations In Hutori, Ataraxians generally enjoy widespread tolerance from locals and national political parties. Ataraxians have particularly warm relations with royalists and devolutionists, who historically have been cooperative with each other in achieving mutual self-determination. With no history of violent conflict and centuries of peace, the Ataraxians are usually viewed as harmless and remain to be a lack of concern to authorities despite their differences. The Ataraxians founded the Terran Coalition for Science (TCS) in October 4306 in effort to promote international scientific research. Cult allegations Ataraxians have sought to avoid the label of being a "cult" by embracing public transparency ever since the first communes were founded by the Hutorian Proletarian Party in September 4160. Although residents may be deported from a commune for violating internal policies, they are not forbidden from communicating with the outside world, including former members. Furthermore, the internal activities of the communes are not kept a secret and a large portion of internal data is accessible to the outside, especially to the Hutorian authorities. The communes themselves offer access to a limited number of visitors to see how life is like inside, although visitors are usually escorted and heavily monitored for apparent security reasons. Hutorian authorities are permitted virtually unrestricted physical access to the communes in order to help nurture trust and assure adherence to agreed upon policies. Nevertheless, in December 4311 some aristocrats in Dorvik labelled the Ataraxians as "dangerous left-wing cultists" with apparent "anti-Dorvish" values. This likely stems from a non-Ataraxian initiative by Herman Faust-Essen, a wealthy aristocrat in Dorvik with far-left tendencies, to construct a commune inspired by Ataraxian design in his area, which met resistance from other local aristocrats. The Ataraxians were invited to set up a commune of their own in Dorvik by Faust-Essen, but declined due to lack of interest and associated political and socio-economic challenges in expanding outside Hutori. The Ataraxian Confederation is not recognized as a cult in Hutori, nor do Ataraxians have a history of controversy pertaining to cult allegations in Hutori. Military The Militia of the Ataraxian Confederation serves as the military and is merely a network of lightly-equipped paramilitary personnel throughout the communes. The security cooperative of each commune shares information with each other relating to internal and external threats. The security cooperatives themselves are entirely defensive and are not trained to handle offensive operations, or any operations outside their commune. List of notable communes :Main article: List of communes in the Ataraxian Confederation Demographics Since reproduction is banned, the Ataraxian Confederation is entirely composed of immigrants (Hutorian citizens) and is thus completely reliant on immigration to sustain its population. Most Ataraxians were from and or born in Adelia. As the confederation is officially an enclave within Adelia, the Ataraxian vote registers as coming from the Adelian province. The Ataraxian population is an example of zero population growth, except in cases where new communes are constructed. Demographic equilibrium is virtually guaranteed due to a large waiting list of new potential initiates (immigrants) and a system of planned death (euthanasia). Initiates are carefully chosen in relation to a particular commune's needs, such as their age and or education level, resulting in a stationary population pyramid. There is generally a preference for ages between 20 - 40. A notable difference from the Adelian general population is the complete absence of children (or those under 18) in Ataraxian society, which are prohibited from obtaining residency in any of the communes. Historically in most communes, men are more prevalent than women (60-70%), due in part to a focus on STEM and trade occupations that largely consist of men. This has changed over time as occupations in health has increased, such as nursing, which has introduced more women into Ataraxian society. While the gender ratio remains unbalanced, Ataraxians do not regard gender as statistically or functionally relevant and regard it more as a reflection of labour demographics outside the communes. Life expectancy can vary drastically from person to person, most people do not live past 90 due to laws requiring the "severely unemployable" to either be euthanized or emigrate. Most are euthanized between the ages 70 and 90, depending on their physical and mental condition. The most common cause of unemployment and thus eventually euthanasia among the elderly is cancer and or "age fatigue", while the vast majority of the younger population maintains good health. No cases of obesity are known to exist. Ataraxians have their health closely monitored by medical specialists, being overweight or underweight is rarely, if ever, tolerated. Education More than 75% of Ataraxians have post-secondary education, largely in the trades or in the STEM fields. While education is free and universal to all Ataraxians, most obtain it before joining a commune, usually due to higher educated immigrants receiving priority. In addition, education is handled differently from the outside world. People are educated in exactly what their desired occupation requires and teachers are the workers themselves, usually the most qualified. Despite this difference, testing is kept largely the same in order to meet outside qualification requirements. If for whatever reason education is unavailable for a desired and "societally essential" field, outside teachers are hired, usually via online education. The literacy rate is 100% as all immigrants and thus residents are required to be literate. Ethnicity The ethnic composition of Ataraxian society closely resembles that of Adelia. As with gender, ethnicity is regarded as statistically and functionally irrelevant. As no reproduction occurs within the communes, Ataraxians make no attempt on keeping a diverse gene pool. Religion About 84% of Ataraxians identify as irreligious, agnostic or atheist. While irreligion has always been predominant throughout the communes, it has gradually increased, often attributed to the pressure of the atheistic culture of the Ataraxians. This is contrasted with the majority religious population of Adelia. The official position of the Ataraxian Confederation is atheism. Although individuals may be religious, organized religion has always remained banned throughout all communes and practicing in public is not tolerated. In general, freedom of religion remains non-existent apart from low-key activities done alone. Freedom from religion is considered a right, religion is considered contrary to science and is typically regarded as delusional. Language The official language of the Ataraxian Confederation is LuthorianEnglish, while communicating in other languages is not prohibited, residents are discouraged from doing so. Culture and philosophy Ataraxian culture and philosophy is rooted in a firm respect for self-determination, workers' rights, compassion, sustainability and the scientific method. It also incorporates public surveillance, the death penalty, sterilization, celibacy, and complete abstinence from recreational drugs as part of its syncretic identity. While not elitist, Ataraxians have tendencies to view the outside world as morally corrupt and irrational. Ataraxianism The Ataraxians are known for their highly idiosyncratic philosophy. Their official ideology, Ataraxianism, can be described as syncretic in its combination of left-wing and right-wing traits, although many of their values do not fit in the left-right political spectrum. In general, Ataraxianism can be described as having far-left economic views and syncretic social views. This philosophy is described in the Ataraxian Constitution, which is both the ideology book of Ataraxianism and the constitution of the Ataraxian Confederation. Reproduction and abortion Antinatalism serves as one of the core axioms of Ataraxianism. Reproduction, particularly of humans or other theoretical sapient beings, is viewed as one of the three unforgivable acts (the "Three Forbidden Acts") and a grave moral evil. While not as condemned as murder or torture, the act of voluntary reproduction is enough to forbid an individual from joining Ataraxian society or being subject to involuntary euthanasia (the death penalty) if an individual is already a member of Ataraxian society. Since all Ataraxians are required to be sterilized before becoming a full member (a "convert") of Ataraxian society, no births have ever occurred and thus the death penalty for reproduction has never been used. Mandatory sterilization (although technically voluntary since no one is forced to become a member) is seen as both a lifelong oath, but also an "insurance policy". Sterilization ensures no Ataraxian will ever be able to reproduce, even if they change their mind in the future, at least for as long as the procedure remains irreversible. The justification for why they consider reproduction to be evil is primarily based on the idea that those who are born do not choose to be born and thus the action is non-consensual for the offspring. Furthermore, it is viewed that because life enables one to experience pain and suffering, breeders ultimately inflict torture onto the lifeforms they create. While one is not necessarily guaranteed a painful existence, experiencing pain at some point in life is very likely. If one gives birth to offspring with severe disabilities and or other negative conditions, the immorality of the act is made far worse. This is viewed as especially true if the parents are aware of this before the birth occurs and have the legal option of abortion. While reproduction is considered a crime by itself, intentionally giving birth to infants with severe disabilities is viewed as a form of torture. Since reproduction is viewed as evil, abortion is viewed as good, albeit best avoided by using contraception, remaining abstinent, or sterilization. Animal rights Despite their strong opposition to human reproduction (or "sapient reproduction"), Ataraxians support breeding animals as livestock, at least until synthetic meat renders this process obsolete. The process of animal slaughter should be made as humane as possible and should utilize the same method of euthanasia as used on humans. While Ataraxians support using animals for scientific research, they require that any experiment that inflicts suffering or risks causing death to an animal be terminated or it will be classified as animal abuse. Voluntary human test subjects are seen as more ethical candidates for experimentation, especially in medical research, due to their ability to express consent. People found to have intentionally inflicted suffering upon and or killed other animals for recreational (including experimental) purposes may be charged with torture and either forbidden from accessing Ataraxian society or executed if they are an Ataraxian (a current resident). People may be forgiven for past abuses to animals if they were deemed to be genuinely unaware that animals feel pain. This forgiveness is usually reserved for acts of abuse committed during childhood, particularly on insects or other animals for which emotional expression is not generally known or understood. Many Ataraxians have been excused for past animal abuse during their childhood, and sometimes their non-Ataraxian adulthood, which mostly involved unintentionally cruel treatment of insects and or recreational hunting of rodents, birds, and or fish. Category:Political parties in Hutori